Tomorrow

Moses said to Pharaoh, "I give you the honor of setting the time that I should pray for you, and for your servants, and for your people, that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses, and remain in the river only." "Tomorrow," (maḥar) he answered. Moses replied, "As you have said, so you may know there is no one like the Lord our God.     Exodus 8:5-6

            The word “maḥar” appears seven times in connection with the ten plagues (including once as “mimaḥarat”), and it therefore serves as a “leading word.”

            Maḥar is first spoken by Pharaoh, while the remaining six times the word is spoken by God or by His messenger Moses, in connection with the plagues of arov (“harmful creatures” or swarms of flies [Midrash Shemot Rabba 11:4, the opinions of Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemia, respectively]), [8:19,25] dever, (a plague on the Egyptians’ livestock) [9:5,6] hail [ibid. 18] and locust. [10:5]

            Pharaoh’s response to Moses’ offer to end the plague of frogs seems strange. Since Moses offered the king of Egypt the opportunity to choose the time for ending his nation’s suffering, we would expect Pharaoh’s answer to be “immediately!”

            Rabbeinu Beḥayye explains that Pharaoh assumed that Moses knew “that the time had come for the plagues’ removal, based upon the alignment of the stars,” thus Moses no doubt expected Pharaoh’s answer to be “immediately.” In order to demonstrate, from his perspective, that the plague was not under the control of God and His messenger, Pharaoh asked that the plague be removed the next day.

            Rabbeinu Beḥayye adds that in agreeing to Pharaoh’s request to delay the termination of the plague of frogs until the morrow, Moses demonstrated that the plague was not under the control of the celestial alignment, nor of nature, but God’s power. Indeed, this is Moses’ intention in saying to Pharaoh “So you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.”

            Rabbeinu Beḥayye’s comments are related to Pharaoh’s first remark to Moses:

Pharaoh replied, 'Who is haShem that I should obey Him and let Israel go? I do not recognize haShem. Nor will I let Israel leave.'                                       [5:2]

            Our Sages understood the name haShem to be composed of “haya hoveh v’yihiyeh” (He was, He is and He will be), and Pharaoh’s declaration denies haShem’s existence in past present and future. “I do not recognize haShem” is stated by Pharaoh in the past tense, but is correctly translated to mean the present as well. The result of this denial is: “Nor will I let Israel leave,” that is, even in the future I will not accept haShem’s existence.

            Therefore, God informed Pharaoh that “tomorrow” is dependent upon His will, for it is He alone who rules past present and future.